Sailing to Samothráki

It was with some disappointment that we left Órmos Vourlidhia on 14 May. Though we have every intention of returning to Límnos, it’s hard to leave a place when you know that there is still a lot to see there. However, we reminded ourselves that we can’t control the weather...

… and the unusual southerly wind proved to be just what was needed to get us bowling along towards Samothráki. Having left the anchorage at 0800 it took us a couple of hours to get around the bottom of Límnos before we could lay an almost direct track for Kamariótissa harbour on Samothráki. We sailed slightly off the direct downwind heading with a reef in the mainsail and the genoa poled out to starboard.

The wind started off at about 15 knots but gradually built as the day progressed to 20 knots sometimes gusting a bit more. BV was very comfortable sailing along at around 6.5 knots but occasionally at up to 7.5 knots (8.5 knots when we hit a wave right and started to surf in the stronger gusts) and so we were happy that we had struck the right sail plan balance. Because we were sailing north near the entrance to the Dardanelles there was quite a lot of shipping around but none that we had to particularly dodge. All in all, it was just very pleasant downwind sailing. Nicky busied herself for a few hours running up another set of sun sights with the sextant. The 3 sets of sights plotted our noon position to within a couple of miles of our actual location so another success there; it will be my turn on the next passage.

Kamariótissa harbour sits behind the spit of land to the north west (L above) of the island   

Samothráki is a high island with a 1611 metre peak (Mount Fengari) and steep cliffs on its northern side. Shrouded in cloud as we approached it looked quite intimidating. In ancient times, in fact until quite recently, the island did not have a proper harbour and the resultant combination of its isolation and the terrain meant that it was always regarded as something of a sacred and mystical place. Due to its height, Poseidon is supposed to have sat on its peak to watch the events of the Trojan war.

Fortunately for us there is now a reasonable harbour at Kamariótissa. It sits on the northwest tip of the island and so perhaps is not the best place to head for in a northerly blow but for us, even with the forecast increase in southerly wind arriving, there were no major issues getting into the harbour.

Mooring up, however, was another matter. Kamariótissa is very much a fishing boat and ferry harbour; yachts find space where they can. Generally, that means on the inner side of the northern (outer) breakwater but with the wind as it was when we arrived that would have meant our being constantly blown onto the quay and what space there was looked to be ‘owned’. On the other side of the harbour when we arrived, however, there were 2 yachts moored stern-to beside what looked to be a ferry ramp. This seemed to be a much better position than on the breakwater, so we tried to match them. The strong cross-wind, however, played havoc.

Our first mooring alongside the quay   

With her heavy weight BV needs 5 or 6 seconds of astern power before she even thinks about moving backwards. She then needs at least the same again before she’s moving fast enough for the rudder to start to do anything. A few seconds longer, and after she’s turned through about 40 degrees because of propwalk, you get some sort of steering control. However, add in a strong crosswind during that initial 20 second phase of trying to go backwards and the usual result is that she spins her stern to the wind and pretty much refuses to go in any other direction. [There are ways to deal with that but it takes a lot of space which you may not have in the confines of a harbour]. On this occasion spinning stern into the wind was BV’s game and so, after 3 attempts to moor crosswind stern to the quay, we switched to mooring alongside, a much easier manoeuvre.

Before we’d even got our lines sorted we’d had 2 propositions for ‘good deals on hiring cars or scooters’ during which time a very pleasant Port Police officer turned up. There would be a ferry at lunchtime the following day he told us, before which we would have to move since we were moored very close to the ferry ramp. Plus there would probably be some large fishing vessels arriving some time during the night and, if so, we would most likely need to move for them. We chatted about where we could move to and then he left asking us to visit the office with our papers before we moved on from Samothráki.

Our final mooring position on the northern (outer) breakwater   

We took a wander around the harbour both to hire a car in which to explore the island the next day and to check out the best place for us to moor BV. One of the areas the Port Police office had pointed out as suitable was an area of the northern (outer) breakwater that happened to run perpendicular to the wind that was blowing at the time. This meant that we would be able to drop and set the anchor well clear of the quay and then ease the chain out, dropping BV back towards the quay until she was in a position for one of us to get ashore with lines. Consequently, our new paint job would be preserved (no being blown onto fenders scrubbing against the quay) and there was no need to do any ‘reversing in a crosswind’ shenanigans. Brilliant! Even better, we could do the move right away and not have to wait until the wind eased; so we did. It all went pretty much as planned, the anchor dug in well and held the bow up, and we’d just finished sorting ourselves out when another yacht arrived. He free-anchored close to the orange ship pictured above and refused to move despite being told that he must do so by the Port Police. He was actually quite lucky because just after dark 3 large fishing vessels arrived and one nearly ran him over. We were glad that we had moved when we did because 2 of the fishing vessels moored side by side exactly where we had originally been tied up.

In the morning the anchored yacht was (again) instructed to move and he came onto the quay beside us. By now, as you can see from the photos above, the conditions were very benign and we stayed moored as we were for the rest of our time on Samothráki.

Samothráki, Greece